“Blow-Up” brings out another side of Antonioni that one never saw coming and for a film which many will say is another masterpiece in his film oeuvre, which in my mind is deserving. “Blow-Up” is a film that is given a wonderful treatment by the Criterion Collection and is a Blu-ray release which I highly recommend!
Image courtesy of © 1966 Turner Entertainment Co. The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Blow-Up – The Criterion Collection #865
YEAR OF FILM: 1966
DURATION: 111 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 1:85:1 aspect ratio, Color, Monaural, English with English SDH Subtitles
COMPANY: Warner Bros./THE CRITERION COLLECTION
RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2017
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Based on the Short Story “Las Babas del diablo” by Julio Cortazar
Screenplay by Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra
Produced by Eisaku Matssura, Kaneto Shindo
Music by Hikaru Hayashi
Cinematography by Kiyomi Kuroda
Edited by Toshio Enoki
Starring:
Vanessa Redgrave as Jane
Sara Miles as Patricia
David Hemmings as Thomas
John Castle as Bill
Jane Birkin as The Blonde
Gillian Hills as The Brunette
Peter Bowles as Ron
Veruschka von Lehndorff as Verushka
In 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni transplanted his existentialist ennui to the streets of swinging London for this international sensation, the Italian filmmaker’s first English-language feature. A countercultural masterpiece about the act of seeing and the art of image making, Blow-Up takes the form of a psychological mystery, starring David Hemmings as a fashion photographer who unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park. Antonioni’s meticulous aesthetic control and intoxicating color palette breathe life into every frame, and the jazzy sounds of Herbie Hancock, a beautifully evasive performance by Vanessa Redgrave, and a cameo by the Yardbirds make the film a transporting time capsule from a bygone era. Blow-Up is a seductive immersion into creative passion, and a brilliant film by one of cinema’s greatest artists.
Michelangelo Antonioni is a filmmaker that had earned the title “Master of Alienation”.
His most well-known films have been called the “Alienation Trilogy” consisting of “L’Avventura” (1960), “La Notte” (1961) and “L’Eclisse” (1962).
But in 1966, the filmmaker would be contacted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for three films and the first film was a direct a mystery thriller titled “Blow-Up”, his first film entirely in English that challenged the Production Code as the film was considered to have “explicit sexual content”. And it would help to lead film studios to abandon the Production Code in 1968 and adhere to the MPAA film rating system.
Considered as one the world’s greatest films, “Blow-Up” is a long awaited title which cinema fans has hoped for release by The Criterion Collection.
The film would star David Hemmings (“Gladiator”, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, “Barbarella”), Vanessa Redgrave (“Atonement”, “Coriolanus”, “Letters to Juliet”), Gillian Hills (“A Clockwork Orange”, “Mesrine Part 1: Killer Instinct”), Jane Birkin (“Evil Under the Sun”, “La Belle Noiseuse”), Sarah Miles (“Ryan’s Daughter”, “Hope & Glory”), Veruschka von Lehndorff (“Casino royale”, “Veruschka – Poetry of a Woman”) and Peter Bowles (“The Bank Job”, “The Irish R.M.”).
Inspired by the 1959 short story “Las babas del diablo” by Julio Cortazar, the film would win the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or in 1967, the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics Award for “Best Foreign Film” in 1968 and many more.
“Blow-Up” revolves around fashion photographer, Thomas (portrayed by David Hemmings).
We see the photographer and his mannerisms when taking photos of popular supermodel Veruschka, how temperamental he gets when he shoots a group of women and things don’t go his way and when he gets bored, he leaves the models and staff, not even completing the job.
Two young aspiring models (portrayed by Gillian Hills and Jane Birkin) try to plead with him to take their photos, but Thomas is not so interested. He drives off to the antique shop and then to Maryon Park to take some photos for a book he is working on.
Thomas starts to take photos of a couple who look like they are in love and as he snaps many photos, the woman (portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave) goes to him and demands the film and admonishes him for taking photos. She tries to take his camera to no avail and then she runs off.
Thomas then meets with his agent Ron (portrayed by Peter Bowles) for lunch and notices a man looking in his car. As he goes off to see what is going on, he decides to head back to the photo studio (and his home) and arriving is the woman, Jane that tried to take his camera at the park hours earlier.
She desperately asks for the film and he tells her to wait. As the two have a conversation, she tries to show him that she will do anything for that film. She even takes her top off and starts flirting with him.
Thomas ends up giving her a different roll of film and when he asks how he can reach her, she gives him a fake phone number and leaves.
Wondering why she was so adamant to get the film, Thomas decides to process the film. And as he looks at the photos, blowing-up the various areas, he sees her looking at another location. As Thomas increases the resolution to the area, he sees a man in the bushes with a gun.
He goes to another frame and when he blows-up the image, he sees the man that Jane was with, now dead.
Did Thomas capture a murder while taking pictures?
VIDEO:
“Blow-Up – The Criterion Collection #865†is presented in 1:85:1 aspect ratio in 1080p High Definition. Picture quality is fantastic, the film features great clarity, wonderful detail and sharpness. There is good amount of grain and for the most part, while a 1966 film, some areas of the film look like you are watching the present. The film looks that good in HD!
According to the Criterion Collection, “This new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Director film scanner from the 35 mm original camera negative and a 35 mm interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices and warps were manually removed using MTI Film’s DRS, while Digital Vision’s Phoenix wa used for small dirt, grain, noise management, jitter and flicker”.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for the lossless audio, “Blow-Up” is presented in English LPCM 1.0 Monaural audio. The lossless soundtrack is crystal clear with no signs of major hissing, crackle or audio pops.
According to the Criterion Collection, “the original monaural soundtrack was remastered from the original magnetic 2-inch 24-track DME/MFX track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD and iZotope RX”.
Subtitles are in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Blow-Up – The Criterion Collection #865” comes with the following special features:
- Michelangelo Antonioni – (5:30) A brief excerpt from “Michelangelo Antonioni: The Eye That Changed Cinema” (2001)
- Blow Up of “Blow Up” – (53:54) A 2016 documentary directed by Valentina Agostinis for the 50th anniversary of “Blow-Up”.
- David Hemmings – (7:41) Excerpt of interviews on the set of “Only When I Larf” (1968, Duration: 5:24) directed by Basil Dearden. The second was a conversation between the actor and host Brian Linehan that took place on the program “City Lights” on April 26, 1977 (Duration: 20:19).
- Vanessa Redgrave – (44:45) A 2016 conversation between historian Philippe Garner and Vanessa Redgrave.
- Jane Birkin – (8:54) A 1989 interview with Jane Birkin (who played the blonde) and her memories of working with Antonioni.
- Antonioni’s Hypnotic Vision – A two piece featurette on “Modernism” (Duration: 16:07) and “Photography” (29:49) with David Alan Mellor, curator and art historian at the University of Sussex, historian Philippe Garner and Walter moser (head of the photographic collection at the Albertina museum in Vienna).
- Teaser – (1:01) A teaser for “Blow-Up”.
- Trailer – The original theatrical trailer for “Blow-Up”.
EXTRAS:
“Blow-Up – The Criterion Collection #865” comes with a 66-page booklet featuring the essays: “In the Details” by David Forgacs, “On the Set” by Stig Bjorkman, “Questionnaires” – A Q&A which Antonioni asked numerous London-based photographers and painters, “Blow-Up” by Julio Cortazor,
For those who have read my reviews for Michelangelo Antonioni’s films, I am a big fan of his cinematic work.
But the film “Blow-Up” is no doubt different from his “alienation” films, it’s less about alienation and existential melancholy, less about relationships between two individuals and more about a photographer and his relationship to the world and seeing something not routine happen to him for the first time. Forcing him to look at life with a different perspective and learn from it.
Part of the entertainment factor of “Blow-Up” is it captures the “Swinging Sixties” of London. A time when London was flourishing in art, music and fashion and the film manages to incorporate that flair, Thomas as a fashion photographer, model Veruschka posing for the camera and their interaction is almost sexual.
For Thomas, when things go right when he’s taking picture, he loves it. When things don’t go right, he gets bored and leaves.
We also have musician Herbie Hancock involved in the film as you hear his wonderful music throughout the film.
And if you desire some that Antonioni alienation, one of the memorable scenes involves The Yardbirds performing “Stroll On” to a quiet audience who just stands there. We see Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck along with Chris Dreja playing on stage and seeing Jeff Beck smash his guitar and Thomas catching it, then we see the audience who was quiet, start to react.
Not many know that in that concert scene, fashion editor Janet Street-Porter is in the audience along with pre-“Monty Python” actor, Michael Palin.
The film also has its moments of spontaneity, as two young women, a blonde and brunette, would do anything to have Thomas take his picture and we see the three having fun in the studio. Â And some fascinating hijinks take place.
Antonioni had said about this part of the film, “although this scene is neither erotic, nor vulgar. It is fresh, light, and, I dare hope, funny”. I no doubt found these scenes to be fun and unexpected.
But before all that, it’s the meeting between Jane (portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave), a woman which Thomas has shot in the park earlier, not knowing what would be in the photographs, flirting with one another and out of nowhere, Jane drops her top and keeps it off. Juxtaposed with scenes between the two earlier, who would expect such a thing to happen.
These scenes are unlike Antonioni’s previous films that it’s quite surprising to see in an Antonioni film, yet because it was unexpected, it made the film much more entertaining.
Antonio explained in his book, “The Architecture of Vision” that “Exhibitionistic and voyeuristic trends are particularly underlined. The young woman in the park undresses and offers her body to the photographer in exchange for negatives she wants to retrieve. Thomas witnesses a sexual encounter between Patrizia and her husband, and his presence as a spectator seems to increase the young woman’s excitement”.
And by no means are these scenes, especially a scene involving Thomas with a group of mimes, to be out of left field. Antonio said that when he created “Blow-Up”, Antonioni said, “When I began to think about this film, I often stayed awake at night, thinking, and taking notes. Soon this story, with its thousands of possibilities, fascinated me, and I attempted to understand where its thousands of implications would take me”.
It’s that intellectual mind of Antonioni that draws me to his films, like a painting that can elicit different moods.
“Blow-Up” brings out another side of Antonioni that one never saw coming and for a film which many will say is another masterpiece in his film oeuvre, which in my mind is deserving. “Blow-Up” is a film that is given a wonderful treatment by the Criterion Collection and is a Blu-ray release which I highly recommend!